The present invention relates to an ignition plug and an internal combustion engine provided therewith. More particularly, it relates to an ignition plug in which an ignition chamber is composed of two ignition chamber parts communicating with one another and with a main combustion chamber.
One such ignition plug is disclosed, for example, in German Offenlegungsschrift No. 2,951,029. It is suitable for igniting an ignition-unfavorable fuel-air mixture and has an ignition chamber with a narrower and a wider ignition part, wherein an annular mass electrode and an electrode supported by an insulator are arranged inside the ignition chamber in the region of transition between the narrower and wider ignition chamber parts. The electrode carried by the insulator extends through the wider ignition chamber part and the mass electrode and projects into the narrower ignition chamber part. The electrode carried by the insulator is formed as a heating pipe and is heated by a heating resistor united with the insulator. In the ignition chamber part of greater diameter has overflow passages which converge to its axis of symmetry toward the connection of this ignition chamber part with a main combustion chamber of an internal combustion engine. The ignition chamber part with the smaller diameter has tangentially directed overflow passages. During the compression stroke of the internal combustion engine in which the ignition plug is screwed, the fuel-air mixture flows through the converging overflow passages into the wider ignition chamber part and through the tangentially directed overflow passages in the narrower ignition chamber part and forms there between their circumferential wall and the heated electrode a twisted flow propagating toward the wider chamber part. This electrode is preheated either by the heating resistor or during the operation of the internal combustion engine by hot gases and maintained at an advantageous temperature. The fuel-air mixture flows along this electrode and becomes ignition-favorable prior to reaching the mass electrode. This ignition plug, however, has certain disadvantages, in the sense of its ignition properties.